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Sometimes reality just doesn't look as cool as you'd like, and as a
designer you may find yourself wanting to play around with it. In this article,
the first in a series called "10 Minutes with Flash," I'll walk
you the creation of a faux video effect using a bitmap, animation, and the Trace
Bitmap feature. This little trick is a great way to avoid buying a digital video
camera and is sure to get your creative juices flowing. Don't
worryyou don't have to know a single thing about digital video to
pull this off. All you need is one good photograph and a version of Flash
released in this century.

Distorting Reality

I only have 10 minutes, so let's get going! Check out Figure
1 to see what you'll be doing.

As you can see, the animation starts out looking like an illustration, turns
into a photographic image, and then turns backresulting in a looped
effect. This not only gives the illusion of video, but it demonstrates how you
can use plain ol' bitmaps to create illustrations you don't have to
draw yourself (good for those of us that are
"drawing-challenged").